Morning Sixers – February 16th, 2017 (Thursday)

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From Adam Clements (@thesauce54 ):

“Who will they give an extension to first? TJ? Covington? Noel? Ilyasova?”

Let’s get into a little bit of a nitpicking technicality first.

There are different things people generally consider “extensions”.

First, there’s re-signing a player, either as an unrestricted free agent (Ilyasova) or as a restricted free agent (Noel). Neither of these are, technically, an extension. Their contracts expire and they’re signed to a new one.

Then there are actual extensions, which include both rookie-scale extensions and veteran extensions.

Rookie-scale extensions are for former first round draft picks entering the final year of a four-year rookie-scale contract. These contracts have to be signed between the end of the July moratorium and October 31st heading into the final year of their rookie-scale contract. None of the aforementioend players qualify for this extension (Note: Covington is not on a rookie-scale contract. He was an undrafted free agent signed using cap space, and actually on his 2nd NBA contract).

Veteran extensions are for players who are, well, not on rookie-scale deals. They can be signed up to June 30th, the day before they’re set to become a free agent. This kind of sucks, though, because such extensions are limited to 4 seasons in length, including any part of a season still left on the contract. Sign the extension on June 29th? Counts as a full season. You’re basically only signing a 3 year extension. This makes it almost meaningless and the unicorn (overused buzzphrase alert!) of NBA extensions.

There’s also a third category, which is a contract renegotiation which can also include an extension. Contracts can only be renegotiated after the 3rd anniversary of the contract’s signing, which rules out renegotiating/extending Robert Covington now (he signed in November 2014, which puts his three-year anniversary at Nov 2017), but it allows for teams under the cap to include a signing bonus in that year’s cap number, and extend off of that renegotiated salary as a base year. This is something the Sixers could theoretically use on Covington next fall/winter. Contracts *cannot* be renegiated between March 1st and June 30th. Also, rookie-scale contracts cannot be renegotiated, which cancels out Noel.

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Derek Bodner is a credentialed reporter covering the Philadelphia 76ers independently for DerekBodner.com. He is also a college basketball scout for DraftExpress.com, and an NBA contributor for The Ringer.
Contact Information: derek.bodner@draftexpress.com / @DerekBodnerNBA